blackfoot-valley

north bank of the Blackfoot River. Lewis called this beautiful stream the “Co- kahlahiskit” - or “Cokahlarishkit” in another of his several variant spellings - which however pronounced means in Nez Perce tongue, “The River of the Road to Buffalo.” Here, we will let Lewis decribe it in his own words: “Entrance of the Cokahlahishkit which falls on NE side is 60 yards wide deep and rapid. The banks are bold but not very high but never overflow....the water terpid...bed composed of rock and gravel. (It is not navigable) in conse- quence of the rapids and shoals which obstruct their currents...The hills were covered with pine and fir. Entering I now continued my rout up the N. side of the Cokaplahishkit River through a timbered country for 8 miles of excellent grass for our horses. The evening was fine, air pleasant and no musquetoes.” “Lewis reaches Shoshone camp with Sacajawea” Charles Russell The next day, July 5th, they covered 31 miles, which brought them to camp near Montour Creek, a few miles west of present day Ovando. So, the next day Lewis and his men, following along the north side of the Blackfoot, and after crossing its North Fork, passed very near the present Ranch’s north (Wales) section and certainly within sight of its land. Lewis called the area from close to Ovando to several miles south and east of it (which includes a part of the Ranch overlooking the Blackfoot) “the prairie of the knobs from the number of knobs irregularly scattered through it.” The “knobs” are the rounded morainal hills left after the recession of the valley’s glaciers. 64